hydroponic garden kits Secrets Blog
Hydroponics is a wonderful way to garden when you want a large yield in a small space.
Typically hydroponics means growing without soil. There is a medium, which can be rocks, and nutrients. The nutrients are mixed with water and usually pumped over the medium to provide nourishment for the growing plants. The perfect way to grow fresh organic herbs, spices, tomatoes, hot peppers, strawberries and more.
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Indoor Growing Kits : Hydroponics is the Way to Go
Hydroponic indoor growing kits may be currently unconventional, but they work. As a gardening method, hydroponics has been used since the beginning of recorded history. The term was originally derived...
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Taranaki Daily News; New Plymouth, New Zealand - It's all in the pH level
June 17, 2005 --
HOW come many gardeners grow beautiful flowers, blooming roses, red tomatoes and tender lettuce yet have no idea what the pH reading of their...
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November 9th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
Have only had this a bit over a week but so far everything is happening as forecast! Lots of oohs and aahs when people see it, and I have high hopes of being able to feed the neighborhood in another month.
November 11th, 2009 at 12:11 am
Product arrived promptly as described. A little more work setting up than buying vegetables in a grocery store but less than preparing a raised back yard garden as we were going to do…also a lot less space to grow crops. After we got it all together [read directions carefully] plants have so far been very healthy looking and are growing quickly. We purchased two units. They just about water them selves, weeds are non existent,and we can have them right up on our deck where they’re easy to get to and away from critters. They also have neat wheels to help relocate them if you need to. The down side is they are kind of pricey and the growing space is limited.
November 12th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
A friend recommended the earth box to me for growing vegetables as we have a great number of deer in the area. I planted two japanese eggplant plants and they now are 2′ tall with several small eggplants on them only after 3 weeks. I’ve never planted any vegetables that looked so healthy.
I’ve recommended them to my sisters and others and plan on purchasing more. It’s a great way to grow vegetables if you have a deer problem, a small yard, or just a patio and want to grow vegetables.
November 14th, 2009 at 12:40 am
I bought this for my daughter for Christmas. She loves it. Works well, and is still living.
November 15th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
This is by far the best AeroGarden plant we’ve grown so far…especially if you want to watch something grow fast.
Though a recent power outage threw off the timing of our AeroGarden…and I had to get out of bed to “turn the salad” off at night.
November 16th, 2009 at 11:59 pm
Plant is growing well, we had about 6 plants sprout in the pod and chose the best one to keep. No Tomato’s yet, but its just a matter of time.
November 18th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
We bought this product last year on sale. I admit at first i was a bit reserved about it but I had always wanted to get one of these and the sale was great.
We used the kit that came with the unit for 7 herbs. The first thing a purchaser should consider is that this unit makes a ton a light, I mean a lot. If you do not have a place to put this unit where it will not interupt your sleep you may reconsider. It took us a long time to remember we did not leave the light on in the kitchen at night because of the amount of light coming from it, yes it is just that bright.
Second, I have heard complaints about how it is loud. I think personally that it is quieter than a fish tank. I have already read other people consider to be as loud as some fish tanks. If that kind of noise does not bother you, then it should be fine for your home.
The amount of herbs we had from our first batch was insane. I cook regularily and could not keep up. The Parsley, Basil and mint were all out of control. I found myself happily experimenting a lot in my cooking because we had so much. We also resorted to trimming some down constantly to avoid being burned by the light (even at full height this can be an issue), to even freezing them in little icecubds like i learned from the Foodnetwork. Either way i feel it is a great purchase and will be using it. Being able to just walk over and cut what i needed was so much fun in the kitchen. I think it is like all seeds, some people get better sets than other’s. Our 7 pod one was so much fun that we bought a second 6 pod unit to grow other herbs.
We had a dud on our 6 pod unit so the cilantro never took off, and in general while good, the 6 pod items just did not take off as much. I think it is just this round of seeds and will be trying again. I prefer the space of the 7 pod (the 6 pod herbs keep getting all caught up in each other because of the tighter design) and found the pump issue to not be an issue for us. A bit of trimming, adding water and nutrients now and then is the only upkeep we have had to do.
A great product.
November 20th, 2009 at 12:49 am
Love to watch the herbs grow. Once they get started they grow fast. Have to clip the tallest ones so don’t have to raise the grow bulbs before the slower plants are ready.
November 21st, 2009 at 12:02 pm
I have 2 Aerogarden 7 pod Classic systems (the Classic 7 pod, 2 season herb w/ dressing mixer & a 7 pod Classic). I’m on my 2nd round of herbs & 1st round of beans. My results have been mixed on both units, and I learned the following from talking to Customer Service:
1) use distilled water
2) make sure the nutrient tablets aren’t mushy
3) store nutrient tablets in the freezer
4) Aerogarden should be switched over to liquid nutrients by November 2009
I’ve had mixed results in growing my herbs & beans. Basil grows like gangbusters, as does the mint & chives, but the rest have been slow to grow or don’t grow well at all. I’ve called Customer Service multiple times, and each time the representative has been wonderful and helpful. They are also quick to replace non-growing seed pods, just as their warranty states. However, even with switching out the grow bulbs after 6 months, I’m still frustrated with my results and hope that the liquid nutrients will be the turning point for my future gardens.
Since Customer Service is convinced that Aerogarden users will see much better results with liquid nutrients, I will update with results once the liquid nutrients are shipped with the seed pods.
November 23rd, 2009 at 12:07 am
Some of the seed pods have not grown well. Growing time is longer that advertised.
November 24th, 2009 at 12:01 pm
I received mine 5 days ago and already most of my herb garden has started to sprout. The one concern I had before buying was how much electricity it would use. I had seen one reviewer claim that it was a silly purchase because you’d be wasting a ton of money on electricity, and another reviewer who had found documentation that the unit used less electricity than a 60 watt light bulb. Anyway, I have a watt meter, so I hooked it up, and it is only using 45 watts (with both the lights and the pump on). So I am very happy in that regard.
There are two other issues which I’ve seen a lot of complaints about in other reviews. First is how bright it is, and yes it is very bright, trust me, you will not be sleeping in the same room with this unit (at least not until you go blind). And the other common complaint is the noise of the pump. My unit was hardly audible the first few days, then it started making a bit of humming. So far the humming is hardly noticeable unless you’re hunched over it trying to see if your seeds are sprouting (which I do a LOT;). The noise is so low, that I haven’t even bothered to look to see if something is loose or if there is a noticeable reason that it starting making the noise.
So far I am very happy (5 stars worth) but I should probably withhold judgment until I’m eating the fruits (herbs) of my labor, actually there is incredibly little labor involved, so as long as I get a harvest I’m going to be buying another couple units (one for tomatoes and one for hot peppers, unfortunately you can’t mix and match since they have different growing cycles and light and nutrient needs, but with as much as I’m enjoying one unit just imagine how much fun three units will be;)
November 26th, 2009 at 12:26 am
Yes, this is expensive but I think most people who care more about results will really dig the EB system. I turned to the EB as my last attempt at gardening. It truly is idiot proof as much as it takes the guess work out of soil conditions, fertilizer feed, watering, weed pulling, etc. What you still have to be constantly on top of in order to succeed is keeping the bugs off, keeping it filled with water, and noticing any sicknesses or other plant related problems that need to be fixed. So is the EB a miracle cure where you can set it, forget it for 3 months, and come back to insane yields of produce? No, not really. But it’s easier to manage than conventional containers and beds. Results are achieved easier and plants definitely grow faster than in other conditions. So it’s worth a try. This particular kit comes with almost everything you need: the dolomite, the 7-7-7 fertilizer, and the hardware. Just get yourself Potting MIX (not soil), seeds or seedlings, and you’re ready to go. Just be sure to follow the directions to a T. Don’t make up your own rules. And if anyone ends up getting the “organic” kit instead, make sure you bury and cover that fertilizer insanely well. I’ve read of maggot and smell problems with it on the EB forum. This isn’t a problem with the 7-7-7 that comes with this kit. And it shouldn’t be a problem if you do bury it and cover it well. Happy farming
November 27th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
I’ll try to add pics to this later. Suffice it to say, I do NOT have a terribly green thumb, but my tomato plants are thriving so far. Shortly after planting one well-developed tomato plant (which already had one small tomato) in a standard container and 2 much younger tomato plants in my earthbox, we got slammed with rain. Days and days of it. The plant in the standard container has some what-cha-ma-call-it … rot, fungus, can’t think of the name of it, but it resulted from too much rain. My earthbox plants went through the same horrific rains, but are doing just fine since the soil was covered by the plastic. And since the earthbox holds 2 tomato plants, it really was no more expensive per plant than the large standard container that holds just one plant.
The trellis system for the earthbox seems quite pricey, so I didn’t order that. I went to KMart and bought a roll of garden twine and a pack of 4′ bamboo stakes – 12 for under $4 – and built a trellis system that I think will work. I might have to do some modifications, but still – you can do a lot with 48′ of bamboo stakes! I just poked them right through the plastic and laced the pieces together with the garden twine. I’ll try to post pics, but just about anything would beat the $30 or $40 they want for the official trellis system!
HIGHLY recommend the earthbox. Just spent time today researching time-to-maturity for other vegetables to see if I have time to start more this late in the summer, and will probably order a second and or third to get started on for cucumbers and squash.
As I said, I’ll try to post some pics. Might try to do the same out on twitter as the plants progress. Twitter handle is the same … @WarmGingerTea. Earthbox is out on Twitter as well at @Earthbox.
Buy it, plant it, and enjoy it !!
November 29th, 2009 at 12:23 am
Great product, I recommend it to anyone with a slight interest in cooking, and/or good eating.
Sadly, out of the first eight seeds I planted on my first batch, two of them didnt sprout. However, the joy the other six have given a joy that it priceless
November 30th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
I bought the garden and set it up and went on vacation for two weeks. When I came back I had basil ready to harvest! It seems to be working perfectly well. I didn’t get the “included” starter herb set with my kit. I called up AeroGrow and it was waiting for me when I returned from vacation. It seems like a hoaky overpriced contraption, but so far it is doing exactly what it says it will.
December 1st, 2009 at 11:58 pm
This is my 2nd Earth Box and I love it. I have no green thumb what-so-ever but I have flourishing plants. The Florida summer heat is a little much for my plants right now but the box is working really well. Make sure you keep the water filled!